Grafting mangoes - am I toast?

[fruitnoob]

One Wednesday, I grafted- first real attempt, 5 scions that I ordered from TAF.  It was brutally hot when I grafted the scions at 5PM.

This morning, I saw condensation at the top of 4/5 grafts. I found one article in this forum that indicated that condensation is bad for grafting.

Should I remove the condensation and re-wrap my grafts? Or am I toast?

Thanks.

[Oolie]

I've had grafts with condensation survive.

You may be toast however. In intense heat, grafts should be shaded, I often wrap them in paper or foil to protect them from harsh sun.

[fruitnut1944]

Don't feel bad I'm a pretty good grafter but so far am 0 for everything I've tried with mango. It's got to get better or I'm going to have a lot of seedling mango trees.

[fruitnoob]

Thanks all. I’ve just wrapped my grafts with foil. Hopefully some of them survive.

[sc4001992]

Can you take a photo of your grafts and post it, I like to see what it looks like. I have about 50% success with mangos here in SoCal.

[fruitnoob]

Can you take a photo of your grafts and post it, I like to see what it looks like. I have about 50% success with mangos here in SoCal.

Here you go. I decided to dry the condensation with tissue paper and wrap it back up.

[Oolie]

I usually stretch the parafilm to be flush with the skin of the scion, I've never tried the loose method.

[Ado]

With a sharp razor blade you can make cuts to let out some of that condensation. Just slice the film and try not to disturb the scion.

[sc4001992]

Fruitnoob, that's no good. Take off the parafilm at the tip where you have air inside. If you can't wrap it tight against the scionwood then just stop about 1" from the tip and just put a plastic bag over the entire scionwood. Make sure you cut small 1/4" holes at the top corner of the plastic bag so that it can breathe. Then if your graft is in direct sun, put a brown paper bag for cover (cut lunch bag to size), that would work better than your foil method. This is how I graft when it hot. You won't get any water inside the parafilm wrap since you have the plastic wrap to protect from watering and also give you that greenhouse effect you want so scion doesn't dry up.

[fruitnoob]

Thanks all. I removed the condensation as best as I could, and used brown paper lunch bags to protect the grafts from scorching heat. The scions still looked fresh to me; I am very happy with the quality of the scions that I received.
I may have an idea why this happened. I put the scions in the fridge right after they were delivered - the FedEx envelop felt warm to me, and after I was done with work, i took the scions out of the fridge and started grafting right away.
Next time I'll either leave the scions out at room temperature and work on them on the same day, or I'll wait a bit longer to graft after taking the scions out of the fridge.